Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that the salty smell of the sea makes food taste better. And let’s say that seeing bare beach bodies while you eat a panini upgrades any cafe experience. And that when it’s time to impress out-of-towners or lovers, there’s no better card to play than dining at an almost-underwater restaurant.

Let’s not say that San Diego is a place where our toes are constantly in coastal waters, yet the bulk of our best dining establishments are inland.

Gulf Cuisine makes it far out west with Eddie V’s, originally from Austin. The upscale restaurant overlooks the inky waters of La Jolla Cove. The staff is gallant. The big Collins glasses are filled with adult relaxants like an American mule (SKYY Ginger Vodka, ginger ale and lime). And the menu expresses chef Bill Greenwood’s skill with USDA steaks and seafood. In the V Lounge you can enjoy live music and jumbo lump crab fried rice (with egg and beurre blanc sauce: it’s so like a paella) or a truffle mac ’n’ cheese (with mineral-y good black truffles, truffle oil, a good béchamel sauce on corkscrew pasta). But dine outside. You’ll feel like you’re in a beautifully shot Michael Mann crime drama. (“Miami Vice,” perhaps?)

Best seating: It’s swank inside, near the historic fireplace that dates back to the 1894 Green Dragon Colony. But the upper or lower decks are where you feel the night air.

Strength: Eddie V’s occupies the former Chart House and has a purer panoramic view of La Jolla Cove than George’s California Modern (which has amazing food, but the view is muddied up with visible rooftops).

Caroline's Seaside Cafe in La Jolla has a view of the beach and the Scripps Pier.— Eduardo Contreras

Need a granola parfait after a morning of surfing? A grilled caprese panini on a break from your marine science research? Check out this new cafe, right next to Scripps Pier, north of La Jolla Shores. It’s your usual breakfast-lunch fare made with farm-fresh ingredients. Still, the voyeuristic balcony view of beachgoers beats the egg scrambles.

This La Jolla Shores surf-adjacent restaurant has the most waterfront cred in town: Its windows were once kicked in by El Niño-powered waves. They’ve since been reinforced, and you can safely witness the closing scenes of a coastal day as stand-up paddle surfers come ashore and beach hikers scurry away from waves, toward your window-side table. Executive chef Bernard Guillas makes globally inspired plates that magnify the view — like a sweet and creamy Maine diver scallop dish that evoked the careful fisherman who harvested them and came with a lemon grass foam like lacy bubbles you’d see on the beach.